We finally made our way to the gates and into the Guild. The most bubbly human I had ever seen bolted over to us so fast it was hard to track, spewing words nonstop. “Hi-hi I’m Georgia but you can call me Go-Go I assume you’re Nymia it’s so nice to meet you oh and you brought all these kids back that’s wonderful I’ll start processing their paperwork and seeing where they all need to go it’s going to get really busy after that I’ll give you all your payments anything else I need to know?”
My brain took a few seconds to adjust to the lightning-fast speed, but I appreciated someone going fast and tried to match her speed. “Hi yes I am Nymia so nice to meet you yes we have 87 kids here from various villages some of them no longer have parents to return to payment can absolutely wait I think we ran into some guards who might be in on it the bandit leader mentioned having things covered with everyone else but the Guild and they were looking super suspicious and menacing when they were looking at us. Also you seem super awesome and I wanna be friends with you.”
“Oh Torrentus, it’s worse than I thought,” Corby muttered.
Go-Go and I talked for a bit while she processed everything. Then she went through and processed all the kids by village of origin. The Guild would put the kids up in an inn for the night, then squads would go and escort them back. There just wasn’t enough room in the Guild beds
That’s so much money.
I was worried about what would happen to those who had lost their parents. Dirt broke town was bad enough; dirt broke town with massive orphan population was a clusterfuck. Pally made sure kids weren’t abused, but there wasn’t much she could do when there’s just not enough to go around. Even with the help from Corby’s family, we barely scraped by before the twins and I started working.
I could tell Corby had the same worries, and we talked about it as we made our way out of town to camp out.
You were adopted, Benny?
“Yeah. Although even knowing my parents, Nymia still didn’t realize at first,” Corby teased.
“I didn’t know how beastfolk kids worked! I was like three at the time.”
“You were six when I had to explain it to you.”
“It was still plausible.” I huffed.
“I have two moms!”
“Magic!” I countered.
What kind of magic does that?
“I dunno. Magic does weird shit sometimes.”
“You can just say ‘magic’ whenever you want to argue that something stupid and impossible is true.”
“I can and I will. You know why? Because magic.” I added some magic into the word as I said it and started laughing. The other two followed suit.
As we set up camp, a realization hit me.
“I just realized that we never even named our party!” I exclaimed.
"Oh yeah, I guess we never got around to it," Corby said.
"Branding is very important!" I huffed.
“I’m almost afraid to ask what your suggestion is."
“Poly Parade!” I said proudly.
Poly Parade? I like it. Bea smiled brightly.
“Not even a pun? I’ll lock it in before you change your mind.”
I grinned maniacally and Corby’s face grew tense. “Alright. To celebrate our party name, PP, stand at attention!”
Bea hunched over laughing while Corby just held his head in disbelief. “I can’t fucking believe I didn’t see that one coming. You made our party into a dick joke…”
“I sure did! At least Bea appreciates my comedic genius.”
Corby sighed again. “We should also set some actual ground rules for the party while we’re at it. We’ve just been kind of winging it for the most part.”
That’s a good idea.
“Here’s my pitch:
1. Keep romantic arguments and adventuring arguments separate
2. Everyone gets one ‘no arguments face’ for adventuring related stuff per month
3. Party decisions on what to do go with majority rules
4. New party members require unanimous votes.”
Those sound good to me. Do we need to formalize chore schedules or anything?
“Nah, I think we can play it fast and loose on that. I trust all of us to carry our weight,” I said.
Okay, but we should also have rules and personal boundaries for romance stuff, too.
“Good point. For myself I don’t have any intentions on adding any other partners.You guys are it for me, but I’m totally okay with you picking up more partners.” Both of them blushed at that. “I suggest weekly check-ins on any concerns or problems. Honesty aura will force us to be upfront about stuff.”
They nodded at me.
I don’t want anyone outside of this group either. Corby and I are friends for now, but I’m not opposed to something changing there. Bea was blushing like crazy, and Corby started blushing as he read it.
“D-ditto,” Corby said weakly.
“Okay, boundaries then? I’m having a hard time thinking of any. Feel free to kiss or grope or hug whatever and whenever you want. You guys are already bathing me as it is.”
“Hugs are fine, but ask for kissing and stuff. And the…rest only when we’re alone and definitely ask first.” Corby was dying of embarrassment, and I had to resist the urge to cackle.
Bea took a deep breath. Nymia has a free pass to do whatever and whenever. Succubi aren’t squeamish about having fun in public. Any contact with Benny requires more communication.
“And any problems with seeing the other get freaky?” I asked
None.
“It might be a bit weird for me, but with how adventuring life is, that’s something for me to work on more than anything else. Might take me a bit, though.”
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We spent the rest of the night making small talk and making out and snuggling. I took a majority of the watch to level my sleep skill. My scouting and magic abilities had improved so much that I didn’t even need to leave the cuddle puddle to do it.
Which meant I was all the more annoyed when I had to get up. There was someone watching us from near the edge of my range. I couldn’t tell who they were, and they weren’t getting closer. Still, I needed to be up and alert, which meant not being wrapped up between my boyfriend and my girlfriend, so I was damn annoyed.
I booped Corb to wake him up. “Someone’s watching us. I’m gonna get a closer look.” He nodded and quickly tied daggers to my feet; I took off.
I hadn’t gotten over the bliss of how fast I moved now. Even while stealthy, I made it over to the people watching us in no time; my short height helped me blend in better with the tall grass I was crouching down and moving through.
Unfortunately, my stealth abilities were nowhere near as formidable as my speed.
“Who’s there?!”
Eh, no point trying to hide, I guess.
“You don’t know? Then why have you been watching us for the past five minutes?” I stood up and saw five people wearing black hoods staring at me. “Ahhhh fuck, this can’t be good.”
“That’s the one; get her!”
Goddamit it.
“OSTRICH!!” I shouted, disengaging and putting some distance between us. The ones with swords and spears couldn’t lay a finger on me, but I did take an arrow to the shoulder.
Fuuuuuuuuuck, that hurts. Can’t even heal the damn thing till we finish.
Corby and Bea were making their way over, so I decided to flank the hooded figures. I concentrated on extending the mana field to include the figures and waited for Corby to make his move. As he struck out at Hood 1, I cast a rumble from behind Hood 2, the one with the bow that had rudely shot me in the damn shoulder, suddenly knocking them towards me. I met them in the air; they blocked my attempted headshot with their arms, but the arm that caught the knife in it was pretty useless now, so no more potshots with that stupid bow.
Hood 2 pulled out a dagger, while Hood 3 started casting something in our direction. Hood 2 started glowing and moving incredibly fast.
Oh fuck, they have zoomie spells?
Hood 2 made a few quick slashes at me, and they were tough to avoid, even with all my speed. Thankfully, they seemed to have some difficulty controlling their newfound speed. They overreached on a lunge and I kicked my dagger into one of their knees. They fell to the ground screaming and dropped their knife. I went to punt the knife into their brain, but my instincts screamed at me and I leapt backwards, watching a giant icicle crash into where I had been standing.
I glanced over at Corby and Bea. Hoods 4 and 5 were trying to split Corby away from Bea, and Hood 3 was trying to prepare another spell, and he was aiming at my party. I tried to race over to kill Hood 2, but the massive figure of Hood 1 stood in my way, swinging at me with a mace with a bunch of spikes on it.
I grabbed Hood 2’s knife with my toes and flung it at Hood 3, who doubled over as it landed in his gut.
Damn, still not a killshot.
The knife was enough to disrupt their casting, which gave me some wiggle room; I sprinted towards the caster, only to get knocked on my ass again by Hood 1. I rolled back to avoid another slam of the mace, which made a small crater where I had been laying.
I get the feeling this guy is even beefier than the dude in the mine.
An idea struck me, and I waited for my chance as I dodged his attacks. I worked on maintaining a mana field as I dodged and weaved around his attacks. He remained stoic with every strike, but impatience gnawed at me as I could see the caster’s wand grow brighter and brighter.
Finally, Hood 1 slammed his mace down at me again. I quickly dodged to the side, then focused on my magic. I harnessed the sound of the mace whiffing through the air to push it down faster, slamming it down into the ground hard enough to make it stick. Hood 1 took no time to react before trying to punch me with his off-hand while still trying to wrest his mace from the ground.
The sound of the mace colliding with the ground was spilling out of the impact, and I focused my mana to scoop it back up and bundle it up back under the mace, using it to launch the mace back at Hood 1’s face. The impact crushed his nose and knocked him on his ass.
It wasn’t enough to kill him, but it was enough to distract him. I sprinted at the caster once more, who looked near to completion on whatever spell he was attempting. My top speed had me launching myself like an arrow at the guy, and he was quick to notice. He directed his wand away from Bea and towards me.
I’m going to have to time this perfectly.
As soon as I saw the tiniest flash of light shoot out of the wand, I leapt. Flames torched the ground beneath me, and my feet were engulfed in flame as I flew towards the caster. The ropes burned off my feet, and the daggers fell to the ground. My flaming foot made contact with the caster's face, searing a footprint into their face. They screamed, but it was cut short as I continued forward, pushing down on his head and crushing it against the ground. I stomped and rolled my feet into the ground to quench the flames.
“Henri!” Hood 5 roared. She went to charge at me, but Corby didn’t let her go for free, slicing deep into her back.
“Ari! Retreat.” Hood 1’s low voice carried such weight behind it. I looked back at him, and he had Hood 2 on his shoulder. Hood 5 was clearly livid, but hurried over to Hood 1. Hood 4 followed, now far more charred than they had arrived.
After I was sure they had left, I turned my attention back to my party. Corby looked much worse for wear. He had cuts all over him, and his left arm was dangling weakly as he leaned on his axe. Bea had blood all over her, and her shirt was torn like it had been stabbed. There was a scorch mark under the tear.
“Damn, Bea, did you burn your own skin to close a wound?! That’s hardcore as fuck. Both of you come over here so I can heal you.”
“Heal yourself first! You can’t even stand right now.” Corby was clearly on edge.
“I probably could stand; it would just suck is all,” I countered. “Oh, but we are going to need more rope. Hate to waste money like that, but oh well.”
Bea sighed and limped over to me and I healed her up. She looked over at Corby. Just come over here and get it over with. You know she’s way too stubborn to give in on this.
Corby looked like he was stifling a scream and walked over. He used one hand to steady himself on the axe and the other one swung freely as he made his way over. I resisted the urge to smirk that I won and healed him and then myself. I took a moment to catch my breath and stretch my newly-healed toes.
“Now, anybody know what the fuck just happened?”
Name: Nymia
Age: 18
Species: Rabbitfolk+ Lv. 87
Class 1: Musical Medic Lv. 37
Class 2: Student of the Unorthodox Blade Lv. 11
Stats:
Bonk: 148+14
Zoom: 383
Sturdy: 136+13
Senses: 380
Brain: 145
Mana: 194
Willpower: 335+291
Free points remaining: 0
Class Skills
* Sound magic Lv. 37
* Soundproof Lv. 37
* Calming Music Lv. 1
* Healing Words Lv. 33
* Medical Knowledge Lv. 18
Class 2 Skills
* Weird Stabbies Lv 13
* Easy Stabbies Lv. 13
* Studying Stabbies Lv. 1
* Zoom Stabs Lv. –
* Must stab weird Lv. –
General Skills
* No Sleep! Lv. 15
* Dodge! Lv 87
* Accuracy Lv. 10
* Sneaky Lv 87
* Stubbornness Lv 87
Species Skills
* Feet of Thunder
* Enhanced Senses
* Forage
* Burrow
* Cuddles